CFIB head to meet with McNeil

‘Meaty’ small-business issues will be on agenda, says federation president

The national president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business will be in Halifax this week to meet Nova Scotia’s premier.

“We wanted to catch up on a couple of fairly meaty small-business issues,” Dan Kelly said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Kelly and Jordi Morgan, the group’s new vice-president for Atlantic Canada, will visit Premier Stephen McNeil Thursday morning during Kelly’s one-day trip to the province.

Thursday’s talks will centre on a handful of issues, the biggest of which is the possibility of expanding pension plans through either federal means or provincial initiatives, like the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.

“Both of those ideas scare us a great deal,” Kelly said.

Two-thirds of Ontario workers do not participate in workplace pension plans, the Ontario Ministry of Finance’s website states.

This new pension plan will introduce a four per cent payroll tax to ensure Ontario workers have some retirement savings, Kelly said.

Two per cent of that will be covered by the employer and the remainder will come out of the worker’s pocket, he said.

This move will lead employees to demand higher salaries, putting “considerable pressure on an employer at a time when, in many parts of the country, Nova Scotia included, … small-business owners are struggling to keep their doors open,” Kelly said.

The group, which received a “very helpful letter” from the provincial finance minister, indicating Nova Scotia wasn’t going down that road, wants to hear from McNeil about his views on expanding the federal plan, Kelly said.

Other issues on the agenda include temporary foreign workers, skills training and the possibility of new taxes on packaging that would mean businesses like pizza shops would pay levies on things like pizza boxes or sandwich wrappers, any waste packaging that goes with their product.

“We’re hoping that the government puts a nail in the coffin of this idea,” Kelly said of the levy.

The CFIB represents 109,000 small or medium-sized independently owned businesses across Canada, including 5,000 in Nova Scotia.

Kelly said this is his first official meeting with the premier since the Liberals were elected to power last fall.